LAKELAND, Fla- Southeastern University's men's soccer team opened The Sun Conference tournament with a 3-0 victory at home against the SCAD-Savannah Bees, moving onto the semifinal for the fifth consecutive season.
The first half remained scoreless through 23 minutes of play, until a penalty kick from Lucas Nishioka put the Fire up 1-0. Nishioka later responded with a corner kick to Edoardo Venutolo, who capitalized with his 12th goal of the season to put the fire up 2-0 in the 57th minute of play.
After checking in for the second time in the matchup, Marcello Cruz nailed a right side cross after a nice feed from Sam Sepulveda to extend the Fire lead to 3-0 with just 12 minutes remaining in the matchup.
Keeper Carlos Curado tallied five saves for the Fire in a dominate showing on the defensive side of the ball to give SEU their eighth shutout victory of the year, including their second consecutive against SCAD.
Southeastern will advance to the SUN Conference tournament semifinal at St. Thomas on Tuesday.
